Honoured and proud

Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, who was named as the EV50 European of the Year, conceded that 2005 had been “a very difficult year”.

European Voice

11/30/05, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 12:06 PM CET

For someone who combines the job of prime minister and finance minister, the European travails of 2005 are still not ended. Earlier in the day, Juncker had been appearing before the Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee in his capacity as chairman of the Eurogroup, the eurozone's finance ministers. He is braced for the European Central Bank to raise interest rates and for another tough round of negotiations on the EU's future budget.

But at the EV50 evening, Juncker's contribution to some of the positive aspects of 2005 were applauded. He was rewarded for winning a referendum on the European constitution, after two negative votes in France and the Netherlands.

Juncker said he felt honoured and proud to receive the award but he was generous in sharing the credit.

"Nothing is possible without allies," he said. He admitted that, "prime ministers want to give the impression that we are always acting on our own" but thanked his diplomatic staff for their help.

On each occasion when he had presided over the European Council, in 1997 and 2005, he had, he said, needed a network of allies.

"I found this network in the European Parliament. Without the European Parliament, nothing is possible in Europe," he said.

Juncker paid tribute also "to a category of member states that does not exist - the so-called new member states". "Some of them - though not all - are behaving as if they had been members since 1957," he said.

Juncker rounded off his speech by thanking the people of Luxembourg who approved the EU constitution, despite the trend.